1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a probe card and fabricating method thereof, and more particularly, to a probe card and fabricating method thereof utilized for testing chips or probe assemblies of an integrated circuit product, which has advantages of reusability, rapid substitution and expansion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an integrated circuit (IC) product is obtained by sequentially ongoing IC design, semiconductor processing, and fabrication of the IC, etc. After completion of these procedures, a probe card is used to perform multi-probe processes by contacting bonding pads. Only the chips qualified in the test or repaired chips are entered into subsequent bonding and packaging processes, and the packaged chips must still undergo a final test for quality check by using the probe card, i.e., in the fabrication process of the IC product, needles of the probe card are used to transmit testing signals which are used for testing a device under test (DUT) (e.g. the chip or the IC product), to determine whether the DUT is damaged.
In the prior art, a fabricating method of the probe card is to simultaneously dispose required needles from low to high on a probe assembly used for fixing the needles according to a needle layer, to ensure maintaining a level for each needle. For example, please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram of a conventional probe card 10. The probe card 10 includes a circuit board 100 and an IC test interface 102. In detail, a slot is on a center of the circuit board 100, and a plurality of first holes 100a neighboring the slot are used for fixing internal components of the IC test interface 102 via a plurality of screws 104. The IC test interface 102 is used for testing the chips and the IC product, and composed of a reinforcement plate 106 and a probe assembly 108. Upper and lower sides of the reinforcement plate 106 include a plurality of second holes 106a, 106b, respectively. The reinforcement plate 106 is disposed on the slot of the center of the circuit board 100, for enhancing the fixation of the probe assembly 108. The probe assembly 108 is composed of a probe base 110, a covering layer 112 and a plurality of needles 114. The plurality of needles 114 are disposed from low to high on the covering layer 112 (e.g. an epoxy resin) according to the needle layer, for transmitting the testing signals of testing the chips and the IC product and returning test results. The covering layer 112 is connected to the probe base 110 (e.g. a ceramic strengthening ring), and fixed on the bottom of the reinforcement plate 106 by a plurality of screws 116 and a plurality of nuts 118.
When performing the multi-probe processes, the probe card 10 can be used for testing the DUT to determine whether the DUT is damaged. However, since a majority of needles of the probe card 10 are disposed on the probe assembly 108 which is used for fixing the needles, when the majority of needles need to be scrapped after use, a user cannot change only the damaged needles to reuse the probe card 10 but needs to purchase a new probe card. In such a condition, the utilization cost increases, and does not facilitate efficient use of resources.
Therefore, how to improve the drawback of inefficient use of the conventional probe card has become a main goal in the industry.